Key suspect in Global case in the U.S.

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President director of the troubled Bank Global Irawan Salim has left for the United States, while the police have named him a fugitive for his role in banking crimes committed by the bank.

His lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon said on Thursday his client told him he left the country for the U.S. on Sunday, the day when the police seized two truck-loads of documents they suspected would be destroyed by the bank management upon Irawan's orders.

Tampubolon, who rose to prominence after he represented former president Soeharto in his corruption case, said Irawan contacted him on Wednesday to tell him of his whereabouts.

"There was no attempt to escape. He went to the U.S. to seek new investors and I have told him to return as soon as possible," Tampubolon told reporters after meeting with the National Police fraud unit deputy chief Sr. Comr. Bambang Premantoro.

The lawyer said his client was trying to comply with instructions from Bank Indonesia, which had ordered Global Bank to inject investment into the bank to increase its credit adequacy ration to at least 8 percent in six months.

"The six-month period that BI had given was not over when this thing happened to the bank," Tampubolon said.

He would not explain why Irawan's departure came just after Bank Indonesia suspended the bank's operations.

Tampubolon said bank executives had never attempted to destroy important documents. He said they were sorting the documents when the police came to the bank's headquarters on Sunday and arrested them.

"On Dec. 10, Bank Global management had a meeting with BI and the central bank's senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom later asked them to submit the files on Monday. That's why the operational director ordered the employees to sort out the documents to find those important for BI," Tampubolon explained.

Police have named Irawan, operational director Rico Santoso and another director identified as Steven fugitives. The police also declared nine other bank employees suspects and are detaining them for investigative purposes.

The bank's financial health had deteriorated sharply over the last couple of months due to fictitious lending activities and other bank fraud.

BI froze the operations of Bank Global after its CAR had dropped from 44.8 percent to minus 39 percent.

Meanwhile, Bambang Premantoro, who heads the police team investigating the case, said the police would focus on locating Irawan and Rico.